not the beetle eruptingfrom the bitten apricotcore-stonenot the ant-shroudcrawling the fruit-cakecooling on kitchen tablemore the night cockroachin the en-suite at 2am, alerted by female shriek,arising in Greek-sweat,it darting stickle-leggedbacked-up in defiancefacing each other,both twitching sleeplessly,perambulating bug-eyeson cockroach eye-stalkshunted, fearing death,it values its foul bug lifeof decay & filth, mildew,rotten fungus & vile gasses,occult subterraneanmusty-stench, yetavoiding extinction withdetermined tenacity,admirable, in its waylook, I say, be reasonablewe can talk this throughnaked man to twitching bug,we can resolve this thingthis is as base as it getslife and death, but no,I sense more, its words in my head, in karmic past& future lives we are bugs toosquish me, you splat yourselfbut wait, I’ve read my Kafka,seen ‘Incredible Shrinking Man’,know of the evilInsect-God Old-Oneslurking outside space-time,I know this interconnectednessof all things stuff,don’t bug me on this

but more, in this strangezen confrontation set tocistern ticks and plops,crushed water easing the floor,no, there’s one life, just one,which endlessly recycles itselfthrough terror of being alonethrough geohistory & cosmic timethus, I am bug, or will be bugor have been bug,all this suffering you inflictyou inflict on yourselfpeering up, a craftier preyI’m trapped in storms of vision,in apparitions in bullets of lightsome moments are longerthan others, some endure foreverin small slight soundstiny tappings of shadowin spattering and janglingone in cold sweatiness, the otheriridescent beetle-shell bug-fetidappraising one another, bothpoised on time’s infinite abyssthis truth it vouchsafes methis screaming vision of truthwe are god, both of uswe are bug, all of usI tiptoe back to bedby morningit is gone...